A Birthday Run
When I turned 40, I wanted to do something physically significant. It seemed fun, and also a nudge in a good direction as I age. I dreamed of doing a 40k (~25 miles) trail run in one of my favorite places — Dolly Sods. However reality set in as I realized the longest I had run was 13 miles. As I participated in some trail races of 5k and 10k distances, it began to dawn on me that road miles and trail miles are quite different, and that a self supported mostly solo 40k trail run would be quite a bit more than a well organized road marathon. So, living in DC, I signed up for the Marine Corps marathon. I was a little disappointed at my time, but I did fine. My time was somewhere over 4:30 and under 5:00. I was hoping to break 4:00, but so it goes. My excuses include that it was surprisingly humid and warm for end of October, a lot of people struggled. Also pretty early in the race I felt the beginnings of hamstring cramps, which I hadn’t experienced in training. I tried to keep my heart rate low to avoid blowing up early. That meant a pretty slow pace. But I made it through without injury, feeling pretty decent at the end.
The following year was my wife’s turn to tackle a big physical goal — running a triathlon. I kept my goals to a minimum (although I did do the sprint tri, on a broken pinky toe no less) so she could have training priority.
This year as I turn 42 I wanted to revive the milestone trail run goal. I set my sights on Old Rag, which is a beautiful hike near DC with a dramatic summit. It’s a reasonable 10 mile round trip, with the bulk of the mileage on a fire road on the descent. I didn’t really train for it, aside from keeping up with normal distance runs (3-4 miles, 30-40 minutes). I waffled, but decided to go for it with low expectations for pace.
There were many pink trillium near the start of the trail
Ascent
I left DC around 5am, arrived at the Old Rag parking lot at 7. The parking lot was pretty empty. I fast-hiked most of the way up, running the few flatter sections when I could, trying to keep my heart rate and exertion level low since I really wasn’t sure what kind of shape I was in. I passed a few other groups and some blooming pink trillium. It took about 1:30 to get to the summit. I packed along a camera and took some time on the summit.
Camera Gear
I brought the OM-5 with 12-45f/4 and 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R. I was really impressed with the 12-45, and less so with the 40-150 R. None of the zoomed in shots from the summit with the 40-150 R were very compelling. They all seemed soft and low contrast.. Maybe I need to pick up the 40-150mm f/4 PRO lens. The composition also wasn’t particularly inspired. Maybe next time I should try to be on the summit for sunrise.
I struggle with composition of landscapes in the Appalachians. The grand vistas are nice in person, and very satisfying after a long slog uphill through the trees. But in pictures they never seem that inspiring. I think having a long zoom is a key here, since you can zoom in on specific compositions with interesting lines and light. It’s also likely that timing is important. Making it up for a good sunrise or sunset would make the “boring” summit view more compelling.
I also brought a GoPro, which I used to create the above video. I had it attached to one of the mini gorilla pod tripods, and was able to stash it in one of the front pockets of my running pack (Black Diamond Distance 8). That made it really fast and easy to do a quick shot without taking the pack off.
Old Rag Ridgeline
Descent
I didn’t spend much time on the summit. It started to get crowded. And sharing the summit with loud teenagers wasn’t the vibe I was chasing. (All the more reason to shoot for a sunrise summit next time).
The descent took about two hours — 30 minutes to get to the spring, another 20-30 minutes finding it, filtering water, playing with cameras, and then another hour to the car (with occasional stops for pictures). I was able to run most of the way down, despite being nervous for the damage it would do to my legs. Going down I wasn’t really limited by heart rate, but by leg muscles.
Early pine buds on old rag summit
View of Old Rag summit from the descent
It was fun! My quads were sore for a few days afterwards. I set myself a nice easy pace to try to beat next year.
Final stats:
4 hours total time
2:32 moving time
1:36 walk time
1:19 idle time
1:06 run time
873m elevation gain
